Chapter 1, The Prison Door
1. Where is the prison door located?
2. For what two purposes did the founders of a new colony set aside land?
3. What one thing in the setting of the prison door has been kept alive in history?
4. What does the author present to the reader in Chapter 1?
Chapter 2, The Market-Place
1. Why is Hester Prynne being punished?
2. How do the "gossips" feel about the punishment the magistrates have set for Hester?
3. Where was Hester born?
4. Whom did she marry?
Chapter 3, "Recognition"
1. What physical characteristic enables Hester to identify the stranger standing beside the
Indian in the crowd?
2. What does the stranger mean when he says, "But he shall be known!--he shall be known!-he shall be known!"?
3. What was Hester's reaction upon spotting the stranger?
4. Who is the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale?
Chapter 4, "The Interview"
1. Who is Roger Chillingsworth?
2. What does Chillingsworth want Hester to tell him?
3. What does Hester mean when she says, "I felt no love, nor feigned any?"
4. What promise does Chillingsworth ask Hester to make?
5. What promise does Chillingsworth make to Hester?
Chapter 5, "Hester at her Needle"
1. Describe the place where Hester and Pearl lived.
2. How did Hester earn money to support herself and Pearl?
3. Hester's work was in great demand among the fashionable town-for every occasion
except one. What was the exception?
4. How does Hester react to the vicious abuse of the "respectable" women and thoughtless
children of the community?
Chapter 6, "Pearl"
1. Why did Hester name her daughter Pearl?
2. On page 82, Hawthorne comments on the Puritan community's treatment of Hester for
her sin and God's treatment of her. What is the irony of these two treatments?
3. As a baby, what was the very first thing that Pearl noticed?
4. Hester is tormented by a question that Pearl teasingly asks her. What is the question?
Chapter 7, The Governor's Hall
1. Why does Hester want to talk with Governor Bellingham?
2. What does the scarlet letter look like reflected in the polished breastplate of the suit of
armor?
3. What effect does this reflecting surface have upon the appearance of Pearl's impish
smile?
Chapter 8, The Elf-Child and the Minister
1. This chapter has three female and four male characters. Who are they?
2. Why does Governor Bellingham want to take Pearl from Hester?
3. Who convinces the Governor that Pearl should remain with her mother, Hester?
Chapter 9, The Leech
1. Are the townspeople happy to have Chillingsworth, the leech, in their community?
2. What is the relationship between Chillingsworth and Reverend Dimmesdale?
3. What change has come over Chillingsworth since he has come to live in Boston?
Chapter 10, The Leech and His Patient
1. What are the reasons Dimmesdale gives for some men keeping their sins hidden from the
world?
2. Why is Chillingsworth interested in the Reverend Dimmesdale?
Chapter 11, The Interior of a Heart
1. What is Chillingsworth doing to Dimmesdale?
2. As Dimmesdale's suffering becomes more painful and his health deteriorates, what
happens with his popularity among the people of his church?
3. Why do you think Dimmesdale beats himself with a whip?
Chapter 12, The Minister's Vigil
1. What is a vigil?
2. How many years have passed since Hester stood on the scaffold?
3. Why does Dimmesdale stand on the scaffold?
4. Where does Dimmesdale see an immense letter "A"?
Chapter 13, Another View of Hester
1. How many years have passed since Pearl was born?
2. How has public opinion of Hester changed?
3. The embroidered letter "A" is now said by many to stand for what?
Chapter 14, Hester and the Physician
1. What changes have taken place in Chillingworth during the period of Pearl's birth?
2. What does Hester ask of Chillingworth?
3. Does Chillingworth grant Hester's request?
Chapter 15, Hester and Pearl
1. Whom does Hester blame for setting off the chain of events that have led to her and
Dimmesdale's suffering?
2. Does Pearl know what the letter "A" on Hester's bosom stands for?
3. With what action by Dimmesdale does Pearl compare Hester's wearing the letter "A"?
Chapter 16, A Forest Walk
1. Why does Hester go to the forest?
2. What reason does Pearl give for the sunshine running away from Hester?
3. Who is the "Black Man"?
Chapter 17, The Pastor and his Parishioner
1. What is Dimmesdale's "sin?"
2. What does Dimmesdale mean when he says, "Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet
letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret"?
3. What secret does Hester reveal to Dimmesdale?
4. What solution does Hester suggest to Dimmesdale?
5. How do Hester and Dimmesdale feel about each other?
Chapter 18, A Flood of Sunshine
1. Is Hester a Puritan? Was she ever a Puritan?
2. What plans do Hester and Dimmesdale make?
3. What symbol does Nature give when Hester removes the letter "A"?
Chapter 19, The Child at the Brook-side
1. What causes Pearl to burst into a passionate, shrieking fit of rage?
2. What does Pearl do when Dimmesdale kisses her?
Chapter 20, The Minister in a Maze
1. What change takes place in Dimmesdale?
2. What plans do Hester and Dimmesdale have?
Chapter 21, The New England Holiday
1. What bad news does Hester learn at the marketplace celebration of Election Day?
Chapter 22, The Procession
2. What disappoints Hester during the procession?
3. What message is Pearl asked to give to her mother?
Chapter 23, The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter
1. Why does Dimmesdale confess his "sin?"
2. How does Chillingworth react to Dimmesdale's confession?
3. What does Pearl do after she kisses Dimmesdale?
Chapter 24, Conclusion
1. What theories did people have regarding a scarlet letter on Dimmesdale's chest?
2. What does Hawthorne say about hatred and love?
3. What makes Pearl the "richest heiress of her day, in the New World?"
4. What happens to Hester?
5. What happens to Pearl?
5. What happens to the scarlet letter?
6. What is on the tombstone of that marks the graves of Hester and Dimmesdale?